Commonality driving Portuguese approach
09th June 2016 - 14:06 by Richard Thomas in London
Portugal-based MRO Arsenal Alfeite is looking at ways to enhance operations within the Portuguese Navy, including new ship design and commonality in ship manufacture and maintenance.
The company, created in 2009, covers some 36 hectares at the naval base in Lisbon, where it works to meet the needs of its main customer, as well as other NATO and commercial clients.
Among its specialties are the use of advanced technologies in electronics, optronics, armaments, and mechanical and electrical engineering.
Antonio Rodrigues Mateus, director business development and strategy, told delegates at the Offshore Patrol Vessel Technology conference that recent years had seen a need for customers focus on where their real priorities lay.
‘There is an advantage in being forced to focus [and] in essence we are talking about defining our priorities,’ he said.
‘We are trying to learn from past errors, a lot of procurement mistakes had been made. We lost the benefits of economies of scale in European navies.’
Mateus said that whereas before there had been a lack of coordination, or ‘alignment’, between the executive and the services, this process was now ‘much better’. Additionally, navies often previously planned with a certain degree of ambition, but were now much more realistic in their outlook.
‘The keys are interoperability, commonality, and a modular approach, which is common sense but has come from extensive analysis,’ he said.
Mateus added that in a global market sense, customers had to bear in mind the cost not only of the ship procurement but also operation. Arsenal Alfeite were exploring ways to introduce a ‘common maintenance strategy’ for the Portuguese fleet, he added.
Unmanned vehicle, both airborne and surface, were also being eyed as ways to enhance the capabilities of small ships, such as OPVs, in operation with the Portuguese Navy.
Portuguese naval forces have operated unmanned systems in recent years, such as Tekever’s AR3 Net Ray. Looking forward, the aim will be to integrate more capable unmanned systems into the OPVs, which will act as a force multiplier.
‘We are extremely eager in using UAVs and USVs. The target is to reduce manning and extend the capability [of OPVs],’ Mateus told Shephard.
‘The concept is to have the more numerous lower cost vessels working in a network, with unmanned capabilities, rather than having only a few, high cost, very capable units [deployable].’
UAVs and automation will help reduce the manning requirement for navies. However, there will still have to be a critical mass onboard, based on how long the vessel is going to be out at sea.
‘This is ambitious, but if you cannot be ambitious now then when can you be?’
https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/imps-news/commonality-driving-portuguese-approach/Abraços
